Thanks for posting that, ocho. I may get my wife to buy some in January. We both did the gift box for 2023 and I don't want to do that again (just a personal preference). I think David Enna's articles are good but I have an issue with this statement: << In my most recent projection I estimated that ...

Found this Morningstar link: https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prpfx/portfolio If I am reading the numbers correctly, it looks like most of their bonds are short duration corporates with most of those bonds having a BBB rating. If they have been following this strategy of holding lots of lower ...

Not a bond expert at all, but... The concept of escape velocity is pretty simple, at least as explained in the article Kevin provided in the first post. But the issue I have with the concept as presented is that long duration bonds will always remain unattractive (when just considering escape veloci...

https://www.usfunds.com/resource/central-banks-are-buying-gold-at-a-record-pace-so-far-in-2023/ This is after record purchases in 2022. Are there any reasons to explain these purchases besides them knowing something we don’t know? Mostly Russia, China, Turkey, Singapore. Perhaps preferring to buy g...

Double posted something. Sorry about that!

I was really glad I had long term TBonds in 2008. They saved my portfolio. Now it just seems like they'll never come back and the roof will finally cave in. Do I rebalance and buy some more? Or get the hell out? Long bonds to me have always been sort of an Achilles Heel of the PP just because their...

While I don't follow the US market much, it seems both bonds and shares are rather elevated in price. As I couldn't find the 30y bond price, imagine you have 50% 10 year bonds, 25% each shares & gold. Thoughts? 30-year yields are elevated but not their price... which is probably what you meant ...

I was really glad I had long term TBonds in 2008. They saved my portfolio. Now it just seems like they'll never come back and the roof will finally cave in. Do I rebalance and buy some more? Or get the hell out? Long bonds to me have always been sort of an Achilles Heel of the PP just because their...

Back when kbg was posting on here (I wish he still were), he would often point out that gold was getting weaker or stronger mainly due to which way the US Dollar Index was moving. This data only goes back to 1/1/2000 but is probably worth a look: https://en.macromicro.me/collections/45/mm-gold-price...

Sounds good Barrett! Letting the ladders run down is a good escape hatch. And...sounds like you have a fee-only advisor already - ask if they'd be willing to handle financial management & transactions? If so, your wife could always arrange for that if needed when the time comes. An aside - I've...

While TIPS bonds aren't often discussed here they've certainly been a hot topic of late on mainstream forums like Bogleheads and sites such as Morningstar - in part because for the first time in many years it's possible to construct a ladder of them yielding a 4%+ inflation-adjusted safe withdrawal...

Don't forget that with a 4% 30 year SWR TIPS ladder that assumes all is spent, no residual. For other asset allocations 4% 30 year SWR was around the worst case outcome, left nothing remaining ... but in the more usual/average case tended to leave a very decent residual amount remaining, in some ca...

Still think the ladders are too complicated, Barrett - what you said about your wife not being able to handle it without you kinda says it all. Well, in general I think you are probably correct, but here are a few things specific to our case: 1) The ladders are not very long (tall?). My TIPS ladder...

OK the discussion has gone a bit into the weeds so I'll try to bring it back around a bit, John Rekenthaler did a good comparison of TIPS, nominal Treasuries and SPIA'S recently: https://www.morningstar.com/bonds/retirement-income-treasury-bonds-tips-ladders-or-annuities TIPS obviously outperform i...

jhogue, congratulations on the house deal, but is this a typo? CPI-U is currently at 3.0% and has been dropping precipitously. With inflation seemingly under control and unemployment at 3.5%, one wonders what motivation the Fed has for any further rate increases. When I listen to Jerome Powell spea...

This is what I thought as well, and was exactly what I was doing. However, after hearing multiple horror stories of executors struggling to unwind estates, I am working to streamline my investments. One of the elements to be simplified is to liquidate both my and my wife's TD accounts and just move...

What's the way to think about using I-Bonds if the yield dips significantly below T-Bills? It looks like you've more or less answered your own question already, but... When your wrote "T-Bills", did you mean the literal definition which is issues maturing between a few days and a year in ...

One major advantage that they do have over iBonds is that they do not have that peculiar limitation that iBonds seems to be the only investment to have -- a limitation in how much investment you can make in them in a year, in one lump sum. If one had $200,000 and wanted to make 75% of it Treasuries...

Barrett, I misspoke. Sorry. It's "bonds," plural, amounting to about $15K. As an aside, the majority of my bond allocation is in Wellesley (VWIAX). Wellesley's managers, of course, are constantly churning their holdings, so in that sense I am getting some exposure to new, higher-yielding ...

Every time I see this thread title I think it’s a Seinfeld reference. :D O0 One of the finest episodes. that episode won many awards …not only was it really something that could have been easily censored in those days but it never used the actual word once for what they were betting on … wikipedia ...

I bought my first 30-year bond a year or two ago, before all the interest rate hikes. The yield is 1.8%. At the time I purchased this bond, 1.8% seemed like an acceptable return. Things look much different to me now that treasury money markets are paying 4.0% and additional interest rate hikes seem...

By the way $5,000 two years ago were: $1,000 - 4, $500 - 1 $200 - 1 $50 - 6 Anyone know why they came in that form rather than just one $5,000? Thanks for the info on the issue dates, Vinny. So it's obviously not from the date you file your return but rather when the Treasury gets around to issuing...

SUCCESS! A few weeks ago I did receive my $5,000 iBonds in the mail after having requested them via my 2022 tax return / refund! I am now officially 2-4 in attempting to do this. Excellent batting average but terrible fielding average! I started with the 2019 return and seem to fail on the odds yea...

I noticed something funny on the kitco.com site starting a couple of months ago that I wonder if others have been seeing. After checking the spot price, when I move my cursor up to the search bar to go elsewhere, a hot blond woman in a tight red dress frequently pops up. It's as if she's saying &quo...

And yet there are also some bright spots in the data. Yes, the US debt has gone up way to high but GDP is also up nearly five trillion $ since before the pandemic. This is from FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP While the debt to GDP ratio has come down from 135 to 119 since Q2 of 2020. Ag...